Big Breakthrough Possible – But It Will Be Tough

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

6:46pm Thursday, July 9th, 2015

Commented 20 times

Steve McClaren has said today we are close on one or two players and most people are assuming those two are PSV midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum and Anderlecht striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, and yesterday in Italy it was even suggested that Aleksandar would be in Newcastle today to discuss a deal.

We doubt that is true, and while we seem to be in good shape with Georginio – it will be a tough sell for Newcastle to get Aleksandar in.

Both transfer fees are said to be €16M (£11.3M) – and if they go through they would beat the highest transfer fee since paid out since Mike Ashley took over in 2007 – that was the £10.3M we paid Deportivo for Fabricio Coloccini back in August, 2008.

Aleksandar Mitrovic – in the black and white stripes of Partizan What seems to be true about Newcastle and Mitrovic from various sources is a bit of a twist – with only Newcastle willing to pay the €16M Anderlecht want for their striker – while other clubs interested – such as Roma and Porto – don’t seem willing or able to pay that much for him.

Roma seem unwilling and Porto just don’t have that kind of money available.

A twist indeed.

Steve McClaren welcomed the press to training at the club’s Darsley Park training headquarters today, and most journalists were impressed with the training and openness of the club.

The journalists were welcomed in a cordial and open manner – so that was good.

But we think a lot of that is Steve McClaren’s doing, and we hope it continues so the relationship between the press and Newcastle improves big time – soon.

This is some of what Steve McClaren said today:

“It’s about getting the right players here. There has been a lot of speculation and we are close on one or two. But in the transfer market, you can be close or you can be miles away.¨

“It doesn’t really matter at one point, just so long as we get the right players. But it would be nice if we could get one or two; if not, we’ll just have to be a little bit more patient and make sure we get the right players.”

“There’s a long way to go before the end of the window, there are still quite a few weeks before the start of the season and it’s important what you have at the close of the window.¨

“Everybody is waiting for it, expecting it. Everybody knows what the objectives are and everybody knows that we have got good players here. But we need to improve on that.”

If the club can get Wijnaldum and Mitrovic in, it would be a huge breakthrough for the club and a big relief for fans, with the probability that the remaining season tickets would be sold fairly quickly.

But we still need center-backs brought in, although we now have all of them fit right now for the first time for almost 18 months – Coloccini, Taylor(S), Williamson, Lascelles and Good – so if we do bring reinforcements in – which is a must – one or two of them will be sold or go out on loan.

But maybe the second player Steve refers to is not Mitrovic – it could be center-back Joel Matip of Schalke, or Marseilles midfielder Florian Thauvin.

Either of those two would be very good too.

But we have still to make our first signing this summer – but hopefully that will be soon.

20 comments so far

Lascelles is an absolute colossus of a man. In those videos he makes everyone else look like munchkins. What have they been feeding him at Forrest? Exactly the kind of build that suits the league, hope he can burst into the first team.

I am slightly encouraged by Wally saying we are after the right players. I assume by that he does not mean getting someone who we might be able to flog for a profit. It must means that he is going to recruit missing pieces of the jigsaw. If so we should be a mile better than last season.

Really want a CB, last 1st team quality CB we bought was Coloccini (Mbiwa should have been but didn’t work out) – don’t want to go into season with Colo, Taylor, Williamson, Lascelles and Good. Colo is past his best but perhaps still our best, Taylor is injury waiting to happen. Williamson has been dependable at times but ultimately not good enough for a ‘top 8’ team. Lascelles and Good are not tried and tested at this level but really hope they come good.

If it was upto me, i would have Good go on loan to Championship, sell Taylor or Williamson and bring an established CB in like Matip who can play alongside Colo this season, whilst playing Lascelles in cup matches and a lot of sub appearances in EPL

Then next season, the CB patnership would be the new CB (Matip ?) along with Lascelles (if proves himself this season) and have Good return from his loan to be backup (if his loan works out well)

Mitrovik has said he wants to play somewhere with a similar warm climate to Italy giving Tottenham as an example. Does not sound like hell be motivated to play in the cold and is shopping himself around instead.

Other teams seem to make these breakthroughs a lot easier than us. How long do we need to wait? Whilst watching rivals complete decent deals, seeing us further adrift.

Seriously worried about next season. A terrible squad was further depleted – now Jonas, Taylor and Ameobi weren’t great but they played a good chunk of matches at the end of the season. A fit again SDJ and incoming Lascelles won’t plug their gap as well as the gaping holes.

Wijnaldum – good player but we have personnel in his position. Address the holes first.

I would say McClaren has a big say on players coming and going; I would go as far as to say he probably has power to veto certain transactions through his knowledge of players and coaches which far exceeds Carr’s.

health update

The stage four cancer remains stabilized and while the PSA count has risen a little, there's no evidence the cancer has spread.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in early 2017 after being in remission for six years.

There is no cure - but there are treatments to prevent the cancer from spreading further.

I am so thankful for the latest results and in awe of the doctors and nurses at the Rex Cancer Center in Raleigh, North Carolina

Now when is Rafa going to sign his new deal and start making Newcastle great again?

Ed Harrison

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